To the guy who wants to use mason jars, go for it. I would never myself because I both brew and process pickled stuff and the principals are different with each. But hey, knock yourself out.

Bolded for Truth. You are free to try, but be aware that you are much more likely to get bottle bombs with mason jars. The pressure differential is exactly opposite between canning and bottle conditioning. Mason jars are not designed to withstand a positive internal pressure, where champagne and beer bottles are.

Plenty of people will say that they've done it plenty of times with no problems. But with as cheap as a case of good, fliptop-bottled, craft beer is, why run the risk?

Sorry for the detour. Back On-topic: That's a great idea. I have read that the most prohibitive aspects to canning are the equipment cost and the bulk nature of supply availability. This business would make both of these aspects of production manageable, for a small fee, of course. The business owner buys cans in bulk, carries the equipment around, and charges you a percentage markup to use some of his cans (maybe a sliding scale cost-point depending on quantity purchased?). Bottom line, it seems he's identified a need and found a potentially profitable way to meet that need. Props to him/her.

That said, I don't produce enough to make it viable, I don't think. I have a pretty stable supply of bottles, and I can't see wanting to pay more to package it differently.

It would be awesome if a large LHBS - or even BOP - could bring this service to the (local) homebrew market. Bring in a fully carbed keg or several, pay a per-graphic setup fee, and a per-can filling/printing fee, and pick it up when it's done. I could see myself paying $2-3 per tallboy for really special batches, though it'd have to be a bit cheaper (~$1.50, maybe?) to do it on a more regular basis. I'd probably put everything in cans if it could be done for $1/tallboy or $75¢/12oz can.

If I was doing 20 gallon batches, and the cost of canning was .05 per can. 128 oz per gal. X 20 =2560 oz divided by 12 oz =213 cans X $.05 =$10.66, yeah I's go for it
Might even go for $.10 per can, any more than that and I'm out!

Hey guys, I thinks some us are talking about canning in mason jar and others in steel cans. When I was little, 1982 dad opened his beer with a "church-key". I'd buy steel canned beer, just to back in time.

If I was doing 20 gallon batches, and the cost of canning was .05 per can. 128 oz per gal. X 20 =2560 oz divided by 12 oz =213 cans X $.05 =$10.66, yeah I's go for it
Might even go for $.10 per can, any more than that and I'm out!

Yeah, you'd never get anywhere near that price for a small batch like that. That's the kind of cost a brewery with *their own* canning equipment might see.

10¢/unit is what people "pay" here just by keeping used bottles (since that's the deposit you'd otherwise get back). Hell, you could probably even manage to turn in printed cans for that refund (not exactly legally, but it'd be easy to get away with), making it free - or even profitable - at the prices you stated. Which actually also suggests that even big breweries pay at least a little more than that. In fact, a business that cans homebrew here would probably only be allowed to operate, assuming it'd EVER be allowed, if they charged the same deposit on the cans of homebrew.

To get totally custom cans made and filled for that price is just never going to happen. It's so far outside the realm of realistic that even just mentioning such prices is ridiculous... pure fantasy.

You'd have to bulk carbonate it. Either that, or drink it nearly flat. I suppose they technically COULD make special "jars" that could withstand the pressure from bottle-conditioning, but they wouldn't even look like regular mason jars, unless they used ridiculously thick glass.

Bulk priming is the ONLY way to go, regardless of what I'm bottling/canning in. We're currently using 5-oz of sugar for our 5-gal batches, and it could be just a TAD on the high side.

I'm willing to bet that if we switched to 3-oz of sugar for our 5-gal batches to go into STANDARD mason jars.

Quote:

Originally Posted by emjay

Either way, you'd be paying a heck of a premium on them and they wouldn't be cheaper than using standard beer bottles, as it'd both be smaller-scale manufacturing and require more glass per vessel. And because of that, I don't see why there would be much of a demand for such a product, making it all the more expensive to actually produce. Which kind of sucks now that I think about it, as I think it'd be fun to "bottle" a Kentucky common or even a CAP.

STANDARD mason jars could be had for incredibly reasonable prices at ANY grocery store in the world....

Twelve - 32 ounce mason jars with INFINITELY reusable lids... for $11

Two of those 12-packs for $22 total, and then you're good for repeating a 5-gal batch FOR LIFE [or at least the life of the glass].

That's "better" than me having to drive to another state where I can buy empty bottles, or paying $2.75 for a 22-oz of Sam Adams. Twenty-nine 22-oz bottles (enough for a 5-gal batch) of Sam Adams would cost $80.And THEN one would still need a capper, and would need to continually buy new caps.

My point is that if one were looking to really be truly "independent" in terms of making beer (i.e. - growing your own grains, hops, washing & storing various yeast strains, etc.).... I would lean toward using mason jars to store the beer. Why?? Because I cannot make caps easily.

I'm perhaps looking at this from a different angle than others are. I'm looking at jars from a SHTF scenario, while others are looking at cans for nostalgic reasons.

But I'm still wondering how my great-grandmother bottled/canned that beer 80-90 years ago....

__________________
I've done all the work solely on intuition, without hydrometer.
-- Maegnar

Bulk priming is the ONLY way to go. We're using 5-oz of sugar for our 5-gal batches.

I'm willing to bet that if we switched to 3-oz of sugar for our 5-gal batches to go into STANDARD mason jars.

STANDARD mason jars could be had for incredibly reasonable prices at ANY grocery store in the world....

Twelve - 32 ounce mason jars with INFINITELY reusable lids... for $11

Two of those 12-packs for $22 and you're good for a 5-gal batch.

That's "better" than me having to drive to another state where I can buy bottles, or paying $2.75 for a 22-oz of Sam Adams. Twenty-nine 22-oz bottles (enough for a 5-gal batch) of Sam Adams would cost $80. And THEN one would still need a capper, and would need to continually buy new caps.

My point is that if one were looking to really be truly "independent" in terms of making beer (i.e. - growing your own grains, hops, washing & storing various yeast strains, etc.).... I would lean toward using mason jars to store the beer. Why?? Because I cannot make caps easily.

I'm perhaps looking at this from a different angle than others are. I'm looking at jars from a SHTF scenario, while others are looking at cans for nostalgic reasons.

But I'm still wondering how my great-grandmother bottled/canned that beer 80-90 years ago....

When I say bulk carbonating, I don't mean bulk priming. I mean you'd have to fully carbonate the beer *before* putting it in jars. The easiest way to do so is with a kegging setup. And if you have kegs, you're probably not bottling a ton of beer for yourself, and people just tend to use growlers (which also have reusable caps) in that case anyways.

And standard mason jars can be had for a reasonable price, sure. But that's a tad irrelevant, since standard mason jars are (as mentioned) highly prone to exploding if you try to carbonate it in the jar. They're not made to withstand internal pressure because manufacturers obviously don't count on people trying to carbonate in them.

If you just want something really cheap and reusable, plastic soda bottles make far more sense. They can hold more pressure than even the best beer bottles.

Anyways, this has gotten terribly off-topic. As somebody else already pointed out, this is not the kind of "canning" that this thread is about, and arguing is kind of pointless because if you really want to carbonate in mason jars, I can't stop you. So if you decide to do so, please just take every safety precaution you possibly can. Exploding glass bottles (or jars) can seriously injure someone, take out an eye or two, or even be fatal.

The mobile canning company is a startup by some of my son's college buddies. Lots of advantages for a small batch brewery to can their products to market. I think it's a great idea and if or when I get bigger at this, I would do it too. the can 'art" is pretty good with the product they've canned so far.

Props to your kids' friends. I thought it was a brilliant idea. And, it got me thinking about whether there'd be a way to make pre-sanitized aluminum cans that a homebrewer could use to put their stuff in. besides the logistics of the sanitization, i was trying to wrap my head around how you could 'cap' the can.

Hey guys, I thinks some us are talking about canning in mason jar and others in steel cans. When I was little, 1982 dad opened his beer with a "church-key". I'd buy steel canned beer, just to back in time.

When I say bulk carbonating, I don't mean bulk priming. I mean you'd have to fully carbonate the beer *before* putting it in jars.

Ahh.... gotcha.

Quote:

Originally Posted by emjay

And if you have kegs, you're probably not bottling a ton of beer for yourself, and people just tend to use growlers (which also have reusable caps) in that case anyways.

But the kegs require CO2, and the growlers eventually require new gaskets.

I guess perhaps the mason jar lids will compress to a point where they will actually need to be replaced, but I've never personally seen one that needed replacing. Don't use them all the time, tho.

Quote:

Originally Posted by emjay

If you just want something really cheap and reusable, plastic soda bottles make far more sense. They can hold more pressure than even the best beer bottles.

This is likely the most "reusable" solution there is, but the taste only seems to be acceptable to me for, at most, a couple weeks after bottle conditioning has finished.

Quote:

Originally Posted by emjay

arguing is kind of pointless because if you really want to carbonate in mason jars, I can't stop you. So if you decide to do so, please just take every safety precaution you possibly can. Exploding glass bottles (or jars) can seriously injure someone, take out an eye or two, or even be fatal.

Do you know the difference between an argument and a discussion???

Thank you for the tips. I will definitely place them in bags inside boxes inside bags inside boxes. I think I'll work from 2.5-oz of priming sugar [for 5-gal], upward by .5-oz for each batch. There must be a limit in which the mason jars DO work. There must be. It could be a fine line, but it must exist. (would you prefer to discuss this instead of argue about it, tho?)

I'm actually curious how long the lids would seal. I think they might seal a couple times with the positive pressure, but I don't believe they'd seal FOREVER like I initially stated.

Anyway, don't mind me. I'm just discussing in the same place that inspired this tangent.

__________________
I've done all the work solely on intuition, without hydrometer.
-- Maegnar